April 21: The National Conference of Accounting Professionals organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN), the regulatory body of chartered accountants, concluded on Friday.

During the closing ceremony, ICAN Executive Director Sanjay Kumar Sinha said that the conference was held to maintain the unity of accounting professionals. He informed that the two-day conference discussed in detail the course of accounting business and what were the national and international challenges.

The first session on Friday, which started with an opening speech by Global IME Bank Chief Executive Officer Ratnaraj Bajracharya, delved on the topic of sustainable business strategy of small and medium industries under the moderation of Hari Bhakta Shrestha, former President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries. This was the overall fourth session after three sessions held on the opening day of the conference. Bidhyabaridhi Sigdel gave a presentation on the topic during the opening session.

Surendra Shrestha, Anal Raj Bhattarai, CEO of NRN Development Fund, and Sewa Pathak, CEO of Vianet Communication, participated in a discussion during this session.

There was a discussion between the representatives of regulatory bodies during the second and overall fifth session of the second day. This session was chaired by Yudharaj Oli, the former chairman of ICAN, in which the Deputy Executive Director of Securities Board of Nepal Ambika Prasad Giri, Director of Nepal Rastra Bank Rajan Dev Bhattarai, Deputy Director of Nepal Insurance Authority Birodh Wagle, Registrar of the Company Registrar's Office Deepak Kumar Pahadi, Deputy Registrar of the Department of Cooperatives Tola Raj Upadhyay, Chief Tax Officer of the Inland Revenue Department Prakash Paudel and SP Hobindra Bogti of the Central Bureau of Investigation of Nepal Police participated in the discussion.

The last session of the conference, presided over by Madhuvir Pandey, former president of ICAN, discussed the issue of capacity building and future strategy.

Kumari Bank’s CEO Ram Chandra Khanal, Shashi Satyal, Manmohan Raj Kafle, Sweety Agarwal and Jhalak Mani Lamsal participated in the discussion in this session.

The conference was inaugurated on Thursday by Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari. On the occasion, he said that auditors play an important role in economic development and prosperity of the country.

According to ICAN, issues such as accounting practices, responsibility of auditors and accountants, sustainable business strategy, regulatory integration and other topics were discussed during the conference. About 900 accounting professionals from all over the country participated in the conference.

Asmaa Resmouki, the president of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the international regulatory body of accounting professionals, also attended the conference.

As Nepal is introducing international practices in the accounting sector, ICAN said that the conference was organized with the aim of informing the stakeholders about such practices and to take their feedback.

The first edition of this conference was held in 2022 under the auspices of ICAN. A total of 1300 people had participated in the conference. The second national conference was held in 2023 in which 1200 people participated.